Seems like Gameinformer wrote an article a few days ago about the exact same things I've been mentioning in this thread. I hope this gets more media attention so that Ubisoft will realize they need to be more careful with a game series they want to continue profiting from. The last three Assassin's Creed games (AC3, Liberation and Revelations) have been criticized for having serious issues, and that's just not a good way to keep fans coming back for more.

Interestingly, while I haven't played Liberation as much as AC3 yet, it has been considerably better at teaching me about game mechanics before asking me to take advantage of them.

From the article:

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On one mission early in the narrative, Samuel Adams said he was going to show me the underground passageways in Boston. I waited patiently for him to lead the way, but he never started moving. After restarting the mission and experiencing the same thing, I realized the game was telling me one thing and expecting me to do another. Despite Sam's claims to the contrary, I was supposed to find my own way to the marker on the map.

Just got to this. As a user experience designer this game makes me angry.

Just wait till you start yelling at George Washing for no apparent reason, seasons change with a split second, oh and Colonial troops are hostile to you, just as the british are. Why? I have no idea, I'm saving their lives all the time, riding with their generals and leaders, but still I'm their enemy?

Beware the invisible red zones around certain churches where those patrols as well...its weird to say the least.

I WANT to love the game, because clearly there is lots to love, but man...it needed 3 months more in the oven or so.

A little tip: The game has shops and peddlers you can purchase consumables in. Don't. You'll spend your money on it, and then the game will take it away moments later. I've bought a full set of consumables multiple times, only to check later and see that I'm back to the "standard" level (ie. no such things as snares, bait, arrows, etc.). It *might* be related to starting missions, but I wouldn't know. The game also slowly takes away your weapons for some reason I fail to understand. I was just taking over a fort, which often requires fighting a massive amount of enemies at once, only to discover that not only had my sword disappeared, my tomahawk had too. I was left with only my hidden daggers for the fight, and no arrows (despite having bought a full pack).

I also see no reason to make your homestead crafters make anything. The time spent fiddling around with the cumbersome trading interface is better spent finding a chest or two, and you'll probably earn more money as well. It's not like your crafters earn levels from crafting stuff. Nope, they get it from homestead missions (which, according to some reports I've seen, are only available during certain sequences. Miss them and they're gone, at least until you've finished the entire game).

Oh yeah, the game features a number of minigames as well. They usually get introduced as part of a mission. They are never explained. The controls sometimes are, but the goal of the game never is. Just to rub it in, at one point in a mission, when first confronted by such a game, your opponent asks you if you know the rules, only to jump directly into the game with no further explanation and no chance for the player to interject and say "no". The game just assumes you know, just like everything else.

I accidentally stumbled upon the whole assassination quest system that was a big part of Brotherhood. I don't know if the game tells you about its existence, but it's pretty well hidden in a confusing part of the interface. In order to access it, you have to hold down L2 for a few seconds until the assassination menu appears. This is where the game teaches you to select an assassination type. What it doesn't teach you is that you can press another key here (Square), while still holding down L2, to bring up the assassination map. At that point you don't have to hold L2 any more, but there's nothing to indicate this. The mission system is interesting enough, though not really strategic in any way. It's just another time sink, though the levels your assassins earn here will benefit you when you call them in as mission support. Well, if the game lets you, that is. During the tutorial for assassin sniper support, the game told me to choose that option from the menu... except that option was grayed out. It never returned until some time after I had finished that mission (the hard way). These options are regularly grayed out with no rhyme or reason, at least any that I can figure out.

On one mission early in the narrative, Samuel Adams said he was going to show me the underground passageways in Boston. I waited patiently for him to lead the way, but he never started moving. After restarting the mission and experiencing the same thing, I realized the game was telling me one thing and expecting me to do another. Despite Sam's claims to the contrary, I was supposed to find my own way to the marker on the map.

Just got to this. As a user experience designer this game makes me angry.

I just did this part (didn't read this before doing it, so had no idea what was going to happen). The game loaded, I saw the marker, and I ran to it. I feel like I am playing a completely different game than you guys are and I guess I am glad, because I am loving it. Granted I am not as far as some of you, but I have yet to run into a glitch or have a problem doing a mission presented to me. This game is going to have to nosedive an incredible amount to not be one of my favorite games of the year. Again, not incredibly far into it, though I just got my officers for the guns on the ship, just to give you an idea of where I am.

I finally had the extreme pleasure of playing the infamous Chase Hickey mission last night. Wow, that was something. The chase missions have always been my least favorite in this series, but THAT one really takes the cake. Whoever designed that should be tortured. Yes it's easy once you figure it out, but I would never have without looking it up online.

Some other complaints. This isn't just about this game as I felt the same way in Revelations - I find the whole wanted level mechanic to be tiresome now. Yes it was fun when they introduced it in either AC2 or Brotherhood, but now it's just a tedious exercise in finding whoever/whatever I need to lower it and hope the guards don't see me. It's just a waste of time that's not fun. On another note, I don't like the economy in this game AT ALL. I'm not interested in hunting, I don't like the Convoy/trading thing, etc. I'm just skipping the whole thing. I greatly preferred the buying shops mechanic to this. Brotherhood's was the most fun economic system by far, though I enjoyed AC2 in this regard too. I also am not into the naval battles like so many others seem to be. (I preferred Sea Dogs!) In fact, I am doing very little in the way of side missions at all. I think I just have AC fatigue with a lot of these things. Putting out a game every year does have its down side.

Having said that, I am still very much enjoying the main campaign (occasional bad - or horrible like Chase Hickey - mission aside). So far, this is my favorite single game narrative of the series, and given how much I loved Ezio's story, that's saying something. I don't particularly care for Connor though. He's not as annoying as Altair, but he's definitely annoying. I also think the moral ambiguity between templars and Assassins is MUCH better in this game so far. Really excited to get back to the game, warts and all.

Some other complaints. This isn't just about this game as I felt the same way in Revelations - I find the whole wanted level mechanic to be tiresome now. Yes it was fun when they introduced it in either AC2 or Brotherhood, but now it's just a tedious exercise in finding whoever/whatever I need to lower it and hope the guards don't see me. It's just a waste of time that's not fun. On another note, I don't like the economy in this game AT ALL. I'm not interested in hunting, I don't like the Convoy/trading thing, etc. I'm just skipping the whole thing. I greatly preferred the buying shops mechanic to this. Brotherhood's was the most fun economic system by far, though I enjoyed AC2 in this regard too. I also am not into the naval battles like so many others seem to be. (I preferred Sea Dogs!) In fact, I am doing very little in the way of side missions at all. I think I just have AC fatigue with a lot of these things. Putting out a game every year does have its down side.

I agree. The whole "wanted" thing seems like a nuisance at this juncture. I also completely skipped over all homestead, hunting, convoy, courier missions, almanac pages, assassin's guild, naval battles and pretty much anything that wasn't the main story. I'm sure they put a lot of work into implementing all these subsystems to flesh out the world, but in the end they're all superfluous grindey fluff for completionists IMHO.

I would be surprised if it isn't. The vast majority of the game's problems are design issues, not outright bugs. Then again, there are plenty of those too. I've had the game crash completely when enabling 3D at one point, and when I tried to start a mission, it got stuck at the loading screen. I could use the menus, so I went to the map and used quick travel to go somewhere else, and then the loading screen disappeared.

I'm trying to pick up a package. I get told that someone else has picked it up several days earlier. The camera zooms about 100 meters away, where the culprit is talking to two of his friends and telling him to hide the pages (it's a book, apparently). Why is he doing this? I don't know. Why can I hear him that far away? I don't know. Why is he doing this now, when he picked up the package days ago? I don't know. What is he doing right there at the same time as me? I don't know.

I also don't really know everything that is being said. For some reason the dialogue in homestead missions, even in cutscenes, is considerably softer in the mix than in the story missions. The result is that while story missions are loud and clear, the entirety of a piece of dialogue from non-story missions can end up being drowned out by a passing cart or similar commotions, which also happened to me tonight.

Anyway, the guy tells his two friends to go hide the pages, and all three of them are marked with red dots on my screen. Aha, I think, I'm supposed to follow them and see where they hide them, or if I can, maybe sneak up behind them and pickpocket the pages off them.

So off I run, ending up right behind one of them. I hit the pickpocket button (Circle, the exact same button used for 90% of actions in this game, such as picking up dead bodies, picking up weapons, and looting dead bodies... oh, all of those happen next to dead bodies, so good luck telling the game what you really are trying to do. Pick up the weapon and expect to lose the better one you brought along. Now that's tension! Other games should take notes), but nothing happens. No indicator, no error sound, nothing. I try again. Nope, nothing. After a bit of fiddling he turns around and shoves me, initiating combat. I look down at the weapon menu. Oh, I think. The game has reset my weapon to my fists. I must be supposed to knock this guy out with non-lethal means, despite the game not even hinting at that being the goal. Pickpocketing is clearly not going to be allowed for, you know, getting stuff I need off these guys. I punch the guy. A group of guards are alerted. I quickly knock the guy out and draw my weapon to deal with the guards. Half a minute later the guards are dead, and I turn back around to loot the target's body... which isn't there. I look for the target dot and find it. Running towards it, I realize it's suddenly behind me. Repeat a couple of times. Then it dawns on me: The guy's body despawned as soon as I stopped looking at him (most likely), causing the mission to be stuck in an unwinnable state and the target dot pointing to nothing in particular. Sigh. Restart from checkpoint.

I try again, this time by sneaking up on him and strangling him. It's at this time I start to think that maybe the game doesn't even care if I use lethal means. After all, the game seems to change its mind constantly about whether or not strangling someone counts as a kill or as a non-lethal takedown. The guards haven't noticed me killing (?) the guy, so I loot him. The guards instantly notice. I kill them. I move towards the next guy. More guards attack me. A civilian too, it seems. I kill them all, then facepalm as I realize that the civilian was my target, and he has now despawned. Restart from checkpoint.

I had to repeat this process a few times, carefully "gaming" the mission so that I took out all guards in the area before even daring to get close to my targets. It made little sense. What should have been a simple pickpocket mission based on how it presented itself, instead forced me into committing a massacre. All this for a few pieces of paper.

A little later in the evening, as I'm running through the forest to get to my next objective, I ponder just how much time I'm spending running between objectives in this game. It's a lot, even with quick travel options. It also dawns on me that among my 25 or so hours spent on the game, maybe about 1 hour or so has been spent climbing or traversing buildings, which has always been the best part of these games. So instead of fun freerunning, you're just stuck running through the forest for hours on end, carefully avoiding trees lest Connor decides it would be a good idea to climb them. Occasionally you'll run into invisible walls, or Connor will just stop for a moment, do a vertical jump for no reason, then continue running.

I miss the careful assassinations from earlier games. I miss finding the optimal route to get close to my target without being spotted by guards, followed by a frantic escape through bustling city streets. Here? You'll be lucky to get a chase sequence, and then you'll curse its name. Like I did tonight, when a mission started without giving me any information about what to do, and by the time a message popped up telling me to chase a guy, as well as giving me a target to see where he was, it was too late. I desynchronized soon after because I was too far away. The only way to deal with the challenges this game throws at you is to know in advance what you're supposed to do, and the game itself offers no guidance unless it must (and often not even then). It just assumes you know. Can you tell that this game received no external focus testing?

Ironically, the game's smaller sibling, Assassin's Creed Liberation, is much better at explaining things, and is more enjoyable as a result.

Edit: One more related thing I wanted to mention since I briefly touched upon it above: The missions in this game sometimes require you to use non-lethal means to take down targets. It will rarely inform you about this limitation, even in dialogue, so the first time you'll hear about it is when you're desynchronized because you killed someone you were supposed to strangle/tackle/whatever. Thanks, game!

Here at Kotaku, we're of two minds on Assassin's Creed III. But whether we think the game is a success or a disappointment, we're all interested in how it came to be the way it is.

Over at Reddit, several of ACIII's developers are currently participating in a Reddit ask me anything thread. They're defending the game from some of the most common criticisms as well as dropping all sorts of interesting tidbits about the game's development and the decisions they made.

Here's Steven Masters on the omission of a crouch or stealth-button, and on the stealth system in general (which is certainly one of my main gripes with the game):

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our stealth is primarily "social stealth", and we've been debating having a crouch button since pretty much day 1. It was always the vision that crouching in public spaces is not "hiding in plain sight" - if anything you're calling attention to yourself. We found that the "stalking zones" - the low vegitation where you can crouch down while low profile - are a good compromise since it allows you to crouch but only in circumstances that make sense.

Sounds like Ubisoft is bringing a lot of bug fixes to the game soon, and that the PC version will have the first two patches on day one. Here's Alex Hutchinson:

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Lots of bug fixes incoming! PC release will include the first two patches on release.

Gabe Graziani gives more info on the PC version, which on questioner refers to as "delayed":

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Not actually delayed, but that's being kind of nit-picky... really, we've added a lot more detail to the PC version and support for DX11. Stuff that we didn't really need to think about for the console versions. Considering the amount we're adding, you aren't really going to end up waiting all that long (not even a month!)

So, the PC version will come with additional patches, both those that have been or are just about to be released on consoles as well as some specific for the PC. I would say it will be less buggy than the console versions AT CONSOLE LAUNCH, but that the console and PC versions will be comparable at PC launch.

They decided not to have the water freeze or hurt the player in the winter, which was probably a good call. Here's Aleissia Laidacker:

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We originally were going to have an element where you & NPCs lose health points while navigating in water during the water, but decided against it in the end. It would be more realistic yes, but a pain in the ass to the player if you desynced because of navigating in water in the winter.

Hutchinson on why killing kids isn't an option:

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There are lines we don't want to cross: there's only so much publicity bonus you get from being on Fox news, and it doesn't add anything to the experience.

He also defends the combat system, which at least one questioner felt is overly simplified:

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Actuaklly we feel it's the opposite: in previous games you could literally counter your way to success endlessly, basically only using a single button, where now you need to make second decision after a counter, and if you want to kill an entire mixed group of enemies in one kill chain, you need to use basically the entire controller.

Steven Masters directly addresses the janky inventory, which he says was a late-game concession, and a frustrating one to ship in the game:

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Thanks for the feedback... for the controls, a lot of it was to do with going into the trees with the freerunning. Trees are a much more complex environment than cities; you have many more valid possibilities, and it's way more frustrating to jump to the ground, so we needed to do something - hence Safe Freerunning on RT.

The UI had some technical issues very late in development that meant we had to slow down access to the weapon wheel particularly; it pissed me off as well. Sorry. We're trying to improve it in the patches!

There's a whole lot more in the AMA, and if you're interested in the game, you should really go check it out. It looks like it's still going on for a little while, too, so you can also ask your own questions.

It's great to hear developers be so open about the process behind their games, and if anything, this has got me more optimistic that the PC version will, at least, address some of my more cosmetic issues with the game. If only it made the stealth work a bit better...

Well that ending was... odd... Not a very satisfying ending (to put it mildly), but nothing nearly as bad as the ME3 atrocity. (I will NEVER get over that one...)

I do find it irritating that the last mission is another damned

Spoiler for Hiden:

chase sequence.

Would it kill these guys to end an Assassin's Creed game with a damned assassination and not some stupid action sequence. At least there were no chariots.

Overall, better than Revelations, but I think they've just thrown too many different things into this game. AC1 was a bit bereft of content, but they nailed the core gameplay, so I thought it was a lot of fun. AC2 and Brotherhood added the content in spades, and they were both great. But now, there's just too much extra stuff and as I noted earlier, playing one of these every year has left me fatigued on the series as a whole. Definitely ready for a break now.

A great, but very flawed series. AC3 was pretty good. I think even playing critical path only (which I did a lot, though still wasted plenty of time with some side stuff) the length is satisfying.

I just did this part (didn't read this before doing it, so had no idea what was going to happen). The game loaded, I saw the marker, and I ran to it.

So what you're saying is that you're ignoring the game's dialogue, and this is making the game better for you.

I wouldn't exactly call that a mark of quality.

I was referring to the quote Fool posted about the guy being stuck at that part. I was saying I hadn't read that so it wasn't like I cheated and knew to go run to the marker. By the way, why are you always such an asshole in threads? "I wouldn't exactly call that a mark of quality." What an asshole thing to say.

By the way, why are you always such an asshole in threads? "I wouldn't exactly call that a mark of quality." What an asshole thing to say.

It wasn't directed towards you, but towards the makers of this game. I apologize if you took it the wrong way.

I'm not sure how you couldn't be confused by that mission, btw. You're given a mission marker at the start of it, as you say. Running towards it you come across a line of guards blocking off a street. Your companion tells you that the path to your destination is being guarded, but that he knows a different, safer path you can take. He tells you that he'll show you. Then nothing happens. The mission marker still points beyond the guards, which means that you either just completely ignore what he told you (ie. he's not going to show you how to pass the guards. You have to do that on your own, and you're not going to follow him during any part of the mission) or get horribly confused. To me that mission felt like it was written by one group of people and implemented by a different group, while none of them ever was in contact with the other.

By the way, why are you always such an asshole in threads? "I wouldn't exactly call that a mark of quality." What an asshole thing to say.

It wasn't directed towards you, but towards the makers of this game. I apologize if you took it the wrong way.

I'm not sure how you couldn't be confused by that mission, btw. You're given a mission marker at the start of it, as you say. Running towards it you come across a line of guards blocking off a street. Your companion tells you that the path to your destination is being guarded, but that he knows a different, safer path you can take. He tells you that he'll show you. Then nothing happens. The mission marker still points beyond the guards, which means that you either just completely ignore what he told you (ie. he's not going to show you how to pass the guards. You have to do that on your own, and you're not going to follow him during any part of the mission) or get horribly confused. To me that mission felt like it was written by one group of people and implemented by a different group, while none of them ever was in contact with the other.

Exactly. If the marker had changed position after that line of dialog it would have made sense. If Adams started moving in a direction after he said "follow me" that would have made sense. I can think of several more ways to change the user experience of that segment so that it doesn't get in the way of the player achieving their goal and moving on. The answer shouldn't be "pay no attention to any of the contextual clues we are throwing at you, just run like a mouse to the cheese at the end of the maze"

guess they were right when they said it was big,look at all that single player!!

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MultiplayerMultiplayer ModesASSASSINATE - Instances where it was possible for players to kill players that were not their target in Assassinate have been corrected.ASSASSINATE - Bodyguards no longer fail to stun when they are locked by the pursuer of the player they protect.DEATHMATCH - In Fort Wolcott, fixed a bug where players would remained stuck on warmup screen.MANHUNT - The cooldown boosts for loss streak bonus are not permanently active for all abilities during a manhunt round anymore.Multiplayer AbilitiesLoss Streak now correctly triggers when players lose their contracts five times in a row.Disruption now breaks the hitting player's lock.The Smoke Bomb's drop behavior has been updated. It now drops at the user's feet instead of dropping in front of them. However, if players drop it from a ledge, it will drop below them.Throwing Knives used against players hiding in haystacks will now make them get out of this haystack.Using Throwing Knives against a target now prevents the target from contesting the kill.Players are no longer stuck after using the Money Bomb from a ledge.Multiplayer LaddersSeveral issues which occurred when players would quit a Manhunt pre-session lobby and join their friends the same session later have been corrected.After a session ends on a draw, both teams will now receive the same rate for Abstergo ladder, instead of one team getting a winning rate and the other getting a losing rate.Players are now granted Abstergo points normally even if one or several players get the idle state at the end of the session (The idle players do not get any Abstergo points)Multiplayer MiscIt is now possible for players to lock their target when their target has just stunned them.Changing the ability set three times during a game can no longer reset the ability's cooldown.The X icon no longer inaccurately persistently displays.It is no longer possible for players to get up and perform a kill under certain conditions while they're vulnerable.Transitions to join Multiplayer sessions after an invite now work correctly.Warm up games are no longer interrupted when the host player leaves.It is now possible to stun a vulnerable pursuer.The X icon no longer displays above the pursuer's previous target when they have been stunned after being vulnerable.

Singleplayer

Platform: AllLocation: Sequence 1 - 12Mission - "A DEADLY PERFORMANCE" - Mission result screen could show an incorrect sync rewardMission - "A DEADLY PERFORMANCE" - Players could be stuck in the opera if they backtracked in a certain way after killing the target.Mission - "INFILTRATING SOUTHGATE" - Target would not be spawned if the player failed to perform a meat shield during the firing line tutorialMission - "INFILTRATING SOUTHGATE" - Fixed multiple bugs where the guard on the boat could walk in circles, stay stuck or jump on the railing. [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: We chronicled this bug during launch week... we'll miss the rail-jump.]Mission - "JOHNSON'S ERRAND" - Fixed floating muskets after a cinematic.Mission - "JOHNSON'S ERRAND" - Moved HUD icon on the explosive barrel on the ground instead of above the cart, because that's what the player needs to shoot.Mission - "JOHNSON'S ERRAND" - prevent the player from using hide spots during part the mission to avoid a possible mission break.Mission - "THE SOLDIER" - Fixed a missing audio line.Mission - "THE SURGEON" - Fixed a bug where the eavesdropping tutorial couldn't be completed if the mission was restarted.Mission - "THE SURGEON" - Fixed NPC not reacting to the player's presence during the steal tutorial.Mission - "THE SURGEON" - Fixed optional objectives that could fail too easily.Mission - "WELCOME TO BOSTON"- When replaying the mission, when asked to buy a sword and pistol, those items would already be purchased.Mission - "WELCOME TO BOSTON" - Fixed Possible mission break if the player shoots the horse he's supposed to ride.Mission - "UNCONVINCED" - Fixed a bug where the player could enter the tavern too early and break the mission.Mission - "UNCONVINCED" - Blocked accidental blending during the tavern fight, which could break the mission.Mission - "FEATHERS AND TREES" - Fixed a bug where the optional objective "Do not touch the ground" could fail too easily.Mission - "HUNTING LESSONS" - Fixed the issue where the bear could flee and eventually freeze. [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: Good news for the bear, I guess.]Mission - "A BOORISH MAN" - After the mission, the candelabra would display an interaction effect while the secret door to the basement was already opened.Mission - "RIVER RESCUE" - Blocked the player from diving in the river too early which could break the mission.Mission - "STOP THE PRESSES" - Cinematic could sometimes not trigger, breaking the mission.Mission - "THE HARD WAY" - Fixed the optional objective "Do not take any damage" that would fail if the player hits rocks even if it doesn't deal damage to the shipMission - "ON JOHNSON'S TRAIL" - Fixed issue where Chapheau could become inactive if the player dragged the fight far from where it started.Mission - "THE ANGRY CHEF" - Fixed issue where the "limit health loss" optional objective would wrongly fail if the player reloads a checkpoint or dies. Also fix the displayed limit to 33% as that's what's actually used.Mission - "THE ANGRY CHEF" - fixed missing butcher hatchet during cinematic if blood option is turned offMission - "BRIDEWELL PRISON" - Closed the cell doors while being escorted to prevent the player from getting stuck in themMission - "BRIDEWELL PRISON" - fixed voices becoming muffled mid-eavesdroppingMission - "SOMETHING ON THE SIDE" - Fixed missing ocean during the chaseMission - "SOMETHING ON THE SIDE" - Made the chase part easier [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: This is the much-hated Hickey chase that I passed only when he bumped into a wagon. Hooray!]Mission - "A BITTER END" - Fixed a camera glitch if the player reloads last checkpoint during a certain cinematicMission - "A BITTER END" - Fixed a glitch that could happen if the player restarted the mission during a specific cinematicMission - "FATHER AND SON" - Fixed a bug where the guard you're supposed to kill would not reappear if the player starts fighting him and then runs away.Mission - "FATHER AND SON'' - The mission could not be completed if the guard the player kills the target he's supposed to steal using a stealth kill from bench or a rope-dart hanging move.Mission - "MISSING SUPPLIES" - Disabled a patrol that would almost guarantee failing the mission if they detected and started fighting HaythamMission - "ALTERNATE METHODS" - Made the chase section easierMission - "BROKEN TRUST" - fixed a bug where the player could be stuck on a horse if he exited and re-entered the Animus at a specific momentMission - "LEE'S LAST STAND" - removed a destructible barrel that could cause problems if used as part of a contextual counter-attack.Mission - "CHASING LEE'' - Adjusted difficulty on the Charles Lee chase [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: This is the other hated chase in the game that many players complained about. It is/was the hardest mission in the game.]Mission - "LAID TO REST" - Fixed a bug where the mission could be failed if redcoats start fighting the mission targets

Location: Side QuestBOSTON BRAWLERS - Mission "PETER BUNYON", prevent the player from hiding, which would break the missionBOSTON BRAWLERS - Mission "THE TOURNAMENT", fixed a bug where the player could blend with spectators and break the missionBOSTON BRAWLERS - Prevent using anything else than the fists during all fistfightsBoston Liberation Missions, North District - fixed an issue where some events would not complete properly if the player used an assassin recruit to kill the target.COLLECTIBLES - fixed some chests that were not properly aligned when lock pickingCOLLECTIBLES - removed the glow effect from chests during lock pickingCOURIER MISSIONS - fixed a bug where mission update popup messages could be missing or wrong when delivering lettersFORT ST-MATHIEU - fixed a bug where the player could respawn inside the fort's reset zone, which could break the fort's logicFRONTIERSMEN - Challenge 3, fixed a bug where objective "visit every tavern" would complete after visiting only 1 tavernFRONTIERSMEN - mission "MONSTER OF THE SEA", fixed a bug where sometimes eavesdroppings could not be completedHUNTING SOCIETY - mission "THE MAN-EATER", fixed a bug where the smaller locate zone would disappear if the player scans all clues outside of itHUNTING SOCIETY - mission "THE PATRIARCH", fixed a where the search zone could disappear from the map after interacting with the 1st clueNew York Liberation Missions - mission "PROTECT THE CLINIC", fixed the mission not failing if the player goes too far from the area to protect.New York Liberation Missions - West District, fixed a bug where the NPCs guarding the infected blankets could sometimes not be there.

Location: BostonRemoved map icon on the door of Molyneux Tavern in Boston, until it is required by a specific mission

Location: DLCFixed a bug where the wrong language could be selected even if the proper language DLC is installed

Location: EpilogueAnimus Synching tutorial, forced subtitles on off-camera voice, so that the player doesn't think the game is frozen

Location: FrontierFixed a bug where players could respawn and desync immediately in a loop if he died in the Valley Forge region before unlocked. Also patches players which savegame are already stuckFixed a bug where the player could respawn under the ground in a loop, in two different placesPlugged a hole in the ground where players could fall through the map [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: Aww. Bummer.]

Location: GlobalA text message is now visible on-screen at all times while a skippable cinematic is playingAdded a failsafe to the animals navigation, to prevent them from getting stuckAfter the end credits, put the hood back up when not in Homestead [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: Oddly, this seemed to be requested a lot. Well, there you go.]Disabled special attacks with heavy weapons on animalsFixed a bug where the player could not equip a color change on the normal outfit from a shop if they are currently wearing a special outfit.Fixed a bug where the player could not finish enemies on ground if they were thrown in deep snowFixed a bug where there wouldn't be any reticle when precision aiming if the SSI option was turned offFixed a few rare bugs where the player could fall through the map while swimming or divingFixed various rare crashesGreatly reduced the probability of animals to get stuck inside an object [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: Sounds good.]

Location: HomesteadFixed a rare bug where the Homestead upgrade progress could be lost after fast-travelling to the homesteadMission "BOWLS BEGINNER" - Removed possibility to quit the bowls game after a reload, which would fail the mission.Mission "CUTTING TIES", fixed a bug where the NPC could react to fights or dead bodies and flee away, breaking the missionMission "NORRIS GOES COURTING", fixed a bug where Norris would not reappear if the player goes too far from him.Mission "THE PROPER TOOLS", fixed multiple glitches where the Quest Log could become inconsistentMission "THE WEDDING", fixed a missing audio lineMission "THOUSAND-POUND IDEA", fixed a bug where NPCs required for the mission could disappear and break the missionMission "TOOLS OF THE TRADE", fixed mission not failing if Lance falls in the waterMission "WHITE TROPHY", make the cougar immune to explosions to prevent a possible mission breakSide-quest "ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE COMMON MAN", fixed a bug where the quest could sometimes not be completed

Location: MenusAdded a wait message for some cases where the game could appear frozen if some servers are unresponsiveAnimus Database, fixed updates of KaniehtŪ:io entry that would be unlocked too early and spoil the fact that... [censored] [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: This is a good fix, because it spoiled one of the game's last twists way too early.]Fixed a bug where the player's friends' Uplay wall would get spammed by previously completed missions and sequences when the player reloads his gameFixed leaderboards ranking the player as #1 when he's actually alone on itHomestead mission icons are now displayed on the map when selecting the "Missions" filterPresent pause menu, fixed a possible glitch if the player enters the controls section and leaves it very fast

Platform: PS3Fixed wrong message after purchasing a DLC and leaving the storeWestpoint DLC - mission "A SPY AMONG US", fixed a bug where required characters would disappear and not come back if the player went too far from themWestpoint DLC - fixed a bug where the player could fall through the map by going through the gate while in conflict

They're fixing a bit more than I was expecting, but not enough to save the game. In particular, critical information not being given to the player hasn't been addressed at all, but other fixes are very, very welcome.

Then there's this:

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A text message is now visible on-screen at all times while a skippable cinematic is playing

ARGH! I hate it when games do that! Never put a permanent skip-icon/text on my screen during cutscenes without giving me the option of removing it!

A long chase sequence through thin, crowded streets and back alleys. Here's where the game truly fails to recognize its own limitations. In order to run, you have to hold down the run button. The thing is, this button also doubles as the free running/climbing button. In practical terms, they might as well have given you the primary objective "Fail if you touch a wall during this extended chase", because that's what it is. You touch a wall, you fail. There's no coming back from that. Have fun replaying the entire chase, because there are no checkpoints. Then have the game taunt you with an optional objective that requires you not to shove/tackle anyone, and put an unavoidable crowd of people around the first bend. That's just rubbing salt in the wounds. Had to turn off the game after trying this chase five times and doing worse every time. Every single failure happened because I touched a wall, and let me tell you, the paths this chase tells you to run are full of twists and turns and are very narrow.

I remember this mission. It was fucking awful.

I got to see this mission in action. the thing that you have to keep in mind is that since the city is a maze of streets you don't necessarily need to follow exactly in someone's footsteps as the separating buildings are not always more than 40M from your target; granted it may not be in one try but after seeing the chase through once it can be quite shorter the second try if you pay attention.

the 'don't shove anyone' option is BS though.

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A long chase sequence through thin, crowded streets and back alleys. Here's where the game truly fails to recognize its own limitations. In order to run, you have to hold down the run button. The thing is, this button also doubles as the free running/climbing button. In practical terms, they might as well have given you the primary objective "Fail if you touch a wall during this extended chase", because that's what it is. You touch a wall, you fail. There's no coming back from that. Have fun replaying the entire chase, because there are no checkpoints. Then have the game taunt you with an optional objective that requires you not to shove/tackle anyone, and put an unavoidable crowd of people around the first bend. That's just rubbing salt in the wounds. Had to turn off the game after trying this chase five times and doing worse every time. Every single failure happened because I touched a wall, and let me tell you, the paths this chase tells you to run are full of twists and turns and are very narrow.

I remember this mission. It was fucking awful.

I got to see this mission in action. the thing that you have to keep in mind is that since the city is a maze of streets you don't necessarily need to follow exactly in someone's footsteps as the separating buildings are not always more than 40M from your target; granted it may not be in one try but after seeing the chase through once it can be quite shorter the second try if you pay attention.

the 'don't shove anyone' option is BS though.

I have thought about this before, but for the life of me I can't think of a situation where your target doesn't choose the shortest route. Every time I've tried a different route I've immediately gotten desynchronization warnings because of distance. In any case, this mission is going to be made easier in the patch, even if I don't know the specifics. Perhaps they'll just make him slower or something. As it is right now, he runs at your exact speed.

So this weekend i have been playing this,i have about 7 hrs in and i am on Sequence 6 i think

I also bought the Guide with it,for two reasons 1)because of TiLT's experiences with there not being notifications a lot of the time and not really knowing what to do and 2) because its a Piggyback guide and they kickass with guides

I have had to use the guide a lot,i can certainly see where people would be getting stuck or confused as it certainly doesn't explain itself in a lot of places

I am still unsure about firing guns

sorry if some of you have said this,there has been that many i can't remember if it has been said One mission close to the start you have to shoot barrels to blow up a gate,the onscreen prompt says to hold down LT...that is all it says,after a lot of messing about i find after holding down LT i also have to press Y

However a little later on,that did not seem the case when i am horseback and i was trying to blow up 3 carts full of explosives as i chased down someone(this was an objective so not important),didn't seem to work at all i tried also to make sure the small target was over the crates,after re-doing that scene about half a dozen times i just gave up and decided just to chase the guy down instead

I have fallen through the frontier map quite a few times when going looking for eagles nests(or whatever they are called)...i see that is supposedly getting patched later this week so that's cool

Overall though i am enjoying it,some things are totally lost on me with the story and it still suffers from that 'i don't want to climb that fucking wall i want to just run' kinda thing...but i am only 7hrs in,and it doesn't feel as though i have done that much yet(especially side missions)

Am i missing some kind of trick to the lock picking or is it a pain in the ass on purpose?

I just made a thread on 360a.org,asking how do you get rid of notoriety in The Frontier(no idea how i got that either,unless my Boston adventures somehow overflowed)..and i got invited to the Bitching thread,because apparently everyone else is moaning that there is no way to get rid of notoriety in The Frontier

Sequence 7 now,12 hrs in....spent a lot of time liberating Boston,so those 12 hrs are not just for the main story...it says i am at 31%,i think i have one more sequence and then i am in NYC

It was good,not mega great,i preferred 1 over this one,but its still better than Revelations,not really sure why all of a sudden we have shit endings in video games,i am nearly as disappointed with this end as i was Mass Effect.....okay,no,that's a lie..but it was still pants

if there is an Assassins Creed 4,and of course there will be,i think i may step away unless they put something mega wow in the game(maybe the next game will be next gen anyway,and next gen city to explore is always tempting)

I did like the online game after the story finished(Online,not Multiplayer),where you have to find pivots hidden by other players around the gameworld,enjoyed it so much i found all 12 which took about 90 minutes

I will try and squeeze a few achievements out of the game and then 'churn' it in towards FC3 this Friday

Seriously - Screw this game. I'm travelling to New York in the Deep of Winnter to help someone, when suddenly George Washington is there, and I yell at him that he never should ask me for anything again after "something" - I have no idea what drugs connor are on, but apparently its now Summer, and George washing is sorry but he has to ask me...???

I finally figured out what the hell you were talking about here. You apparently started the PS3 bonus mission, which takes place during the later parts of the story. The Animus doesn't necessarily tell the story chronologically or exactly, which is why you'll suddenly see season or day/night shifts as you trigger a cutscene. By starting the PS3 mission the season was updated to match the one that part of Connor's history occurred in, and the dialogue with Washington reflects events that may or may not have occurred at the point where you were.

It would probably have been easier to understand if you knew you were triggering a special mission. The mission is clearly marked as a Benedict Arnold mission, but if you didn't know (or didn't remember) that this was a special, exclusive mission to the PS3, I can see how you'd get confused.

Yeah, I understood that after a while - Its just a weird way of representing the storyline. I think the whole Animus part actually is detrimental to what they want to do here, especially in instances like this.

At the time, I had no idea what or who this Benedict was, and it confused me mightily.

I've actually stopped playing the game after this, because on top of all the other issues I didn't have any fun playing the game at all.

As MO said, I think I'm done with the series - They seem to be milking it now, and the story makes absolutely no sense, Connor (The spanish named guy..sigh) is a twat with zero likeability - I find myself rooting for the Templars, which surely cannot be the intent?

Alright, I'm calling it: I am officially finished trying to get the "constraint" objectives on the story missions. I got a 100% sync in Brotherhood and Revelations, but AC3 can go to hell.

I should have stopped sometime in Revelations. They were already poorly implemented there, either set up with little gotchas to ensure they couldn't be accomplished without some serious trial and error time or designed in ways that assumed the game mechanics were far more precise than they actually were. Still, I thought it was a fluke. The Brotherhood bonus objectives were almost universally fun and rewarding to pursue, and I believed a full-fledged sequel might have been worth a similar degree of play testing.

Nope. Instead of providing an incentive to explore all of the tactics at your disposal, the constraints in AC3 exist to reward people who wish to spend hours replaying every mission four, five, six times over until a combination of rote memorization and random luck puts success within reach.

I was doing it, too. Even if they aren't skill-based any more, that alone doesn't make them into miserable chores. Some, like the challenges to run a particular gauntlet within the time limit or without touching the ground, were plenty satisfying to complete. I had 100% sync on every mission through Sequence 6.

The mission that finally broke me was near the end of Sequence 7 where you have to infiltrate a ship without being detected. That isn't a spoiler since this is the third game in a row where Ubisoft is recycling the exact same stealth mission. The big difference here is you have to do it twice, perfectly, while also executing an air assassination against one particular guy, and the rules for what alerts the guards are incredibly arbitrary *and* erratically enforced. Yank a dude off the deck while his buddy is looking right at him? Fair game. Shoot an arrow into a guard's neck while the next closest guy is on the opposite end of the ship, behind a stack of cargo, and the cannons are going off? No, his Spidey-sense tingles and he zeroes your position like that gun from The Fifth Element.

I'm sure someone here ghosted through that mission on the first try, and good on them. Me, I reloaded that checkpoint two dozen times until I'd disabled the first ship, completely cleared the second except for the last guy who had to be air-assassinated, climbed the rigging to a perfect vantage point, and watched Connor's straight shot get blocked by invisible geometry and send him tumbling to the deck.

If I were ten years old and this were the only game I had to play for the next six months, maybe this sort of "challenge" would hold some sort of masochistic appeal. Fortunately, I'm upwards of thirteen, a holiday season of end-to-end discounts has left me with more games than time, and I don't have to grind out these awful bonus objectives any more.

Quote from: Razgon on November 26, 2012, 07:44:04 AM

Connor (The spanish named guy..sigh) is a twat with zero likeability - I find myself rooting for the Templars, which surely cannot be the intent?

Also, this.

I'm going to finish this game, but man: Connor sucks. At what point in the scripting process did they decide it was a good idea to center on a main character whose only outward emotion is sullen peevishness?

One interesting thing about this whole thing, is that I saw over at Qt3 a guy who knew the lead writer on AC3 shoot him an instant message, asking if the slanted view on the Templars and their actions was on purpose, and basically he said yes it was, since , and this is important, what you are playing is MEMORY, i.e with it carries impressions and as such your view of the world and actions taken by those in it, is influenced by that worldview. The fact that they had taken THAT into account, makes me see the game in another light, which is kinda interesting.

Ah, here it is:

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Whatever other issues with the plot/script, the difference in the portrayal of the Templars between Haythem and Connor was, indeed, a purposeful narrative device based on character POV. Shot a quick DM to main AC writer Corey May, and his basic reply:

"Yes. Exaggerated to make a point. Maybe went a bit too far. But Lee was also known for being short-tempered and un-charismatic."

got to play through the Benedict Arnold missions, and wow, were those short. I think it took about 20 minutes, definitely no where near the additional hour advertised.

Spoiler for Hiden:

misson one: all the spies were easily accessible from the bushes. the one that wasn't was totally out of the line of sight of everyone else.mission two: delivered the goods, then the target tried climbing an embankment which Connor got up quicker and tackled the guy as he stood up.mission three: followed the target, he never seemed to stop like other targets did. rather anti-climatic end to the tail. mission four: beat up on the British, kill the snipers. watch cutscene and yawn.

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review of the first episode of The Tyranny of King Washington. they say the series has an OK start:

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Narratively, this first episode of The Tyranny of King Washington canít help but be unsatisfying Ė itís only one-third of a story, after all. The wolf powers, though, go some way towards redeeming it. Theyíre a fun twist on the gameplay thatís given just enough space to breathe without becoming tired. This bodes well for the following two episodes of this DLC, which will feature two more animal-spirit communions and give Ratonhnhakť:ton several more powers, but the storyís refusal (so far) to really engage with the alternate-history angle beyond its current limited scope is less encouraging. Thereís so much potential in this premise, and yet so far weíve not seen much at all that Assassinís Creed 3 didnít show us already.

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